Miami Vice - Season 1

This was the coolest cop show on TV in the 1980s. Nostalgia time. Don Johnson, Miami Beach, flashy clothes, great cars, cool music, hot women. And everything photographed so beautifully you could eat it with a knife and fork.

But re-watching it...hard to get through more than 4 episodes. Of the three recuring Cop characters, only Don Johnson could act. The dialogue is minimal and cliched. Plots? Almost non-existant. Repetitive. Take Hawaii Five-0, dumb everything down x 10, make it all about drugs/guns and you got a Miami Vice story.

Looks great. But definitely less filling. All Sizzle and no steak. Will not watch Season 2.

Little Giant (1946)

Comedy highlights? The "13x 7=28"  skit.  Abbott with a mustache playing a look alike "Cousin"

Unlike most Abbott and Costello comedies, Little Giant doesn't contain song interludes, romantic subplots or an exciting chase finish.  And the boys aren't doing comedy gags, here they play comic characters. Costello is a country bumpkin who goes to LA to sell vaccum cleaners. Abbott plays his crooked sales manager AND his more likable cousin. The supporting female cast is given a chance to shine with statuesque Jacqueline De Wit taking the honors.   Summary: A pleasant, lightweight comedy which gives Costello a chance to take center stage and show some acting skills. Its a role that Red Skelton would've done better - but Costello is more than adequate.   Rating  **1/2

Pardon My Sarong (1942)

 One of Abbott and Costello's biggest box office hits.  A&C are Bus drivers on the lam who end up on a South Sea Isle.  There are some funny moments and gags scattered througout, and it was just the sort of escapist fare the USA wanted in the midset of WW II.  However,  we get too many medicore song & dance numbers.  And too much silliness and too many fake Polynesians.  Not bad, but forgettable.  Rating ** 1/2

Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein (1948)

This is often labeled A&C's best movie. And its understandable.  It has a great supporting cast of Lon Chaney, and Bela Lagosi, and Lenore Aubert (a Dracula ally who pretends to love Lou).  There's nary a wasted moment, and if Costello isn't being funny, something interesting/scary is going on.  Supposedly, Costello didn't want to do the movie, declaring the script was so bad "His little girl write better".  And you can see why Costello had that reaction. 

Almost all the enjoyment comes, not from the dialogue, but from the great actors, the direction, and Costello reactions.  But all that is excellently done. Obviously pitched to a "Teen Audience", this kid at heart enjoyed it.  Rating ***

The Wistful Widow of Wagon Gap (1947)

While I love Abbott and Costello's "Who's on first?" routine, I've never watched their movies, so I gave this one a try.  

Funniest scene:  Costello has frog soup.  Only the frog is a little on the raw side.

Props to George Cleveland as the "Judge".  

A&C play a comedy trope you can see in Crosby-Hope or Wheeler & Woolsey. One partner is the con-man and the other a gullible boob (and gets most of the laughs). Anyway,  Wistful Wagon is pretty funny as A&C end up in a Lawless Western town that forces Costello to support a Widow (well played by Marjorie Main) and her seven kids.  Its even more fun when Costello becomes bullet-proof since anyone who kills him must take his place. Its only 78 minutes, and that includes some gun play and a song.  Enjoyable.  Rating ***

Trafic (1971) tati.

Trafic is a shorter and much more conventional Tati film than Playtime. Here, Tati, his sancho panza, and a pushy American PR girl, drive their new Camper Car from Paris to the Automobile Show in Amsterdam. Needless to say, everything goes wrong. Like other Tati films, the humor is subtle and low key. I think an American director would've taken the scenes and made them more madcap and absurd.

Funniest scene: A filling station, instead of giving out green stamps, gives out big plaster busts of famous personages!

Summary: Tati made this at age 64, and who is incredibly funny at 64? I'd place it 5th amongst Tati's films, I've seen after Mr. Hulot's Holday, Playtime, Jour de fête, and Mon Oncle. But its genial fun and quite charming.

Thou Shalt not Grow Old (2018)

About British Troops on the Western Front in WW I.  The Documentary uses vivid coloralization to literally breathe life into old stockage footage and make these soldiers come alive.  My only criticicism? The horrors of war is hit a little too hard.  One of the best of its kind. Rating *****